Just because a show goes to Broadway, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a success. And just because a show is on Broadway in previews, doesn’t mean it’ll ever actually see opening night. Whenever a Broadway show succeeds, chances are three more have closed. A few though really stand out in my mind.
My favorite flop of all time has to be Seussical. While it’s done in a lot of high schools, community theatres, and even elementary schools, it didn’t do well on Broadway. It played a total of 198 performances, and to try to help it out brought in once pop icon, Aaron Carter to try to sell seats. It basically took Horton Hears a Who and The Cat in the Hat and married the two stories, throwing in other Dr. Seuss characters as well. Honestly, I think it became too much after a little while and people either loved it and followed it through to the end, or they just became bored and couldn’t wait for it to end. Today it’s done in schools across the country due to the fact that it can have a large cast. Seussical was on Broadway for a year before it took its final bow.
Bombay Dreams is another flop of Broadway. This one though played 284 performances before it closed its doors in 2005 after it played for only a year as well. Honestly, this was one of those shows the producers made sure you knew about, but didn’t do a great job marketing it, or telling the general public exactly what it was about. It also didn’t help that the cast was relatively unknown actors.
Not all flops are musicals, however. Over the past week, I went to a local staged reading of an Arthur Miller show, The American Clock. The director had mentioned that they tried to open it on Broadway in the 80s after Miller had written it, but that it didn’t do well. After looking it up, I found that it only played on Broadway for about three weeks. The show is not typical Arthur Miller where you will have a gasp-worthy moment (as in the loud gunshot when Willie Loman kills himself at the end of Death of a Salesman), rather this show followed a family’s financial ruin during the Great Depression. All of the actors are onstage during the entire run of the show, and while actors are conversing with each other, a background actor is speaking as one of the character’s thoughts. It was very stop and go, and Miller kind of got lazy at the end, by having two characters summarize their lives after growing up, and coming home after the Vietnam War.
If you’re curious to pick up any of the cast recordings I’ve mentioned, they are on sale on iTunes and Amazon, and you can get a copy of The American Clock from the Drama Book Shop, or even Amazon.